My (short) Worldcon adventure
Aug. 25th, 2006 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonWhen I stopped by the art show to say goodbye to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tryslora yesterday, she had such a worried look on her face. "I hope you had fun," she said.
I did, Deb. Thanks for being concerned about me. And it was so nice to meet you!
Even though Worldcon was huge, only my second con ever, and rather overwhelming at first, I met some people, including two of my favorite authors, actually got up enough nerve to have conversations with them, got a card from an editor, and listened to some good panels.
I decided to wait until after 9 for the traffic to die down before heading down to Anaheim--I actually left nearer to 9:30, and the traffic was a breeze. But because I'm a dork and I haven't driven down that way in years, I wound up taking a wrong turn somewhere. All told, though, I only lost about 20 minutes. But what with parking and hiking, I didn't get to the Convention Center until near 11. The first of my two Must See panels started at 11:30, so I had just enough time to run into the dealer's room to look for Deb and say a quick hello. She introduced me tomatociquala and we shook hands before she had to run off for the first panel she was on.
Then I ran off to sit in the audience of a panel on revision. I was interested in the subject matter (since I'm heavily into revisions right now), but mostly I wanted to see it because two favorites were on the panel: Peter S. Beagle and James Patrick Kelly. I got there with five minutes to spare and had to sit in the back. The speakers weren't on a dais so much head-craning was involved to get a look at who was speaking. Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Kay Kenyon, and Louise Marley were also on the panel. It was an informative and entertaining bunch. At the end there was a mad rush of folks to the table, so I left and went in search of something to drink. Bottom line on the discussion: keep writing and revising until you discover the individual method that works best for you. Everyone was so different: fast first drafts with no revisions until the second draft; reread what you wrote the day before to bring you up to speed, then write the next patch without stopping for revision; constantly cycling and recyling until it's polished. Peter Beagle said when he was young he used to write every first draft like it was the third draft and as a consequence of constant polishing, was not very prolific. He tries now just to get a draft down first, then polish it--but he still can't help fiddling along the way. James Patrick Kelly does the reread yesterday's then do today's method. Kay Kenyon writes fast, Louise Marley is a constant fiddler, Jacqueline Lichtenberg writes in layers: one pass for story, another pass for dialogue, another for research, and etc. A couple of interesting techniques from JP Kelly: give your short stories to a friend who's not a writer and ask them to cross out everything they think is unnecessary. Usually they'll be right. Also, read a story out loud and see how long it takes. Then deduct 10 minutes from the reading time and think about what you'd cut to make it 30 minutes rather than 40 (for example). Usually the stuff you cut is what you can live without.
The next panel I wanted to see was on getting vampire fiction published (not vampires in publishing as I originally wrote) and since I do have a stake in that topic (har har), I was quite interested. On the panel: Vera Nazarian (norilana), Lee Martindale, Charlaine Harris, Paula Guran and Sean McMullen. This was a lively and very approachable group and much kibitzing with the audience ensued and, miracle of miracles, I actually got the gumption to go up and talk to the people at the table. Because I was briefly introduced to Vera the year before at Loscon, and because we've exchanged three or four words online since, I had the illusion that she was someone I sorta, kinda, a little bit, almost know (though I don't really), so it was enough to overcome my personality disorder and to have a chat with her; and Charlaine Harris is extremely approachable (as were all the people on this panel) and I was even able to ask a question from the audience which got quite a bit of spirited discussion, so that took the edge off the bashfulness for me. I chatted with Charlaine Harris, got Paula Guran's card, and that was that. Bottom line on the discussion: paranormal romance and vampires have almost evolved into a genre of their own and there's still room for "paranormal with a difference." Because it's selling so well, there's still a lot of buying going on. Charlaine Harris related the story of trying to sell Dead Until Dark. Her agent told her vampires would never sell, but she believed in the book even after it was turned down by a ton of editors. Of course, it was a phenomenal success, and when she went to pick up her Anthony award for the book, she looked out on a sea of editors who'd passed on it. "But I took the higher road and didn't mention that." "I'm not sure I would have had such self-control," said Paula Guran.
After that it was near 1:30 and my bowl of cereal from 8 o'clock had worn off, so I went to have lunch. Then I walked around the dealer room for awhile. Near the back wall, I ran across James Patrick Kelly and Peter S. Beagle doing signings. I really wanted to go up to Beagle, but it took me another circuit of that section of the dealer room to work up the courage to go up, buy a book (The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche, one of the few I didn't already have), and get in line. (I know, I'm a dork.) But I finally did. Last in line, and he was willing to chat, so we did. A very nice man, with a mellifluous voice and very philosophical, but I was so star-struck (he's been an all-time favorite of mine since I was very young) that all I could do, pretty much, was offer prompts to keep him talking. And finally I even ran out of those, so I thanked him and left. And wanted to spork my eyes out because I immediately thought of a hundred things to say. Ah well.
As it was getting close to four I had a decision to make: leave then to get slightly ahead of traffic (in my experience, Thursday is the worst night for traffic of the whole week); go to some more panels, then kill time at the bar until 7 or so (to give the traffic time to die down); or leave somewhere between those two times and have a 45-minute drive turn into an hour and a half of parking lot driving. I really wanted to see if I could meet up with some OWWers in the bar later, but my bad ankle was aching and mixing pain killers with alcohol with a long drive didn't seem like such a good idea. So I said goodbye to Deb, felt only a little guilty about being such a nerd, and left.
I need to get out more, clearly. But I wound up feeling really good about my day because I had some great discussions and because I was able to get over myself enough to actually accomplish something. (Teeny though it was compared with most folks, it was big for me.) Maybe next time I go to a major con I can actually stay more than five hours. Maybe I can (on my!!) even go for more than one day.
tryslora yesterday, she had such a worried look on her face. "I hope you had fun," she said.I did, Deb. Thanks for being concerned about me. And it was so nice to meet you!
Even though Worldcon was huge, only my second con ever, and rather overwhelming at first, I met some people, including two of my favorite authors, actually got up enough nerve to have conversations with them, got a card from an editor, and listened to some good panels.
I decided to wait until after 9 for the traffic to die down before heading down to Anaheim--I actually left nearer to 9:30, and the traffic was a breeze. But because I'm a dork and I haven't driven down that way in years, I wound up taking a wrong turn somewhere. All told, though, I only lost about 20 minutes. But what with parking and hiking, I didn't get to the Convention Center until near 11. The first of my two Must See panels started at 11:30, so I had just enough time to run into the dealer's room to look for Deb and say a quick hello. She introduced me to
matociquala and we shook hands before she had to run off for the first panel she was on. Then I ran off to sit in the audience of a panel on revision. I was interested in the subject matter (since I'm heavily into revisions right now), but mostly I wanted to see it because two favorites were on the panel: Peter S. Beagle and James Patrick Kelly. I got there with five minutes to spare and had to sit in the back. The speakers weren't on a dais so much head-craning was involved to get a look at who was speaking. Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Kay Kenyon, and Louise Marley were also on the panel. It was an informative and entertaining bunch. At the end there was a mad rush of folks to the table, so I left and went in search of something to drink. Bottom line on the discussion: keep writing and revising until you discover the individual method that works best for you. Everyone was so different: fast first drafts with no revisions until the second draft; reread what you wrote the day before to bring you up to speed, then write the next patch without stopping for revision; constantly cycling and recyling until it's polished. Peter Beagle said when he was young he used to write every first draft like it was the third draft and as a consequence of constant polishing, was not very prolific. He tries now just to get a draft down first, then polish it--but he still can't help fiddling along the way. James Patrick Kelly does the reread yesterday's then do today's method. Kay Kenyon writes fast, Louise Marley is a constant fiddler, Jacqueline Lichtenberg writes in layers: one pass for story, another pass for dialogue, another for research, and etc. A couple of interesting techniques from JP Kelly: give your short stories to a friend who's not a writer and ask them to cross out everything they think is unnecessary. Usually they'll be right. Also, read a story out loud and see how long it takes. Then deduct 10 minutes from the reading time and think about what you'd cut to make it 30 minutes rather than 40 (for example). Usually the stuff you cut is what you can live without.
The next panel I wanted to see was on getting vampire fiction published (not vampires in publishing as I originally wrote) and since I do have a stake in that topic (har har), I was quite interested. On the panel: Vera Nazarian (
norilana), Lee Martindale, Charlaine Harris, Paula Guran and Sean McMullen. This was a lively and very approachable group and much kibitzing with the audience ensued and, miracle of miracles, I actually got the gumption to go up and talk to the people at the table. Because I was briefly introduced to Vera the year before at Loscon, and because we've exchanged three or four words online since, I had the illusion that she was someone I sorta, kinda, a little bit, almost know (though I don't really), so it was enough to overcome my personality disorder and to have a chat with her; and Charlaine Harris is extremely approachable (as were all the people on this panel) and I was even able to ask a question from the audience which got quite a bit of spirited discussion, so that took the edge off the bashfulness for me. I chatted with Charlaine Harris, got Paula Guran's card, and that was that. Bottom line on the discussion: paranormal romance and vampires have almost evolved into a genre of their own and there's still room for "paranormal with a difference." Because it's selling so well, there's still a lot of buying going on. Charlaine Harris related the story of trying to sell Dead Until Dark. Her agent told her vampires would never sell, but she believed in the book even after it was turned down by a ton of editors. Of course, it was a phenomenal success, and when she went to pick up her Anthony award for the book, she looked out on a sea of editors who'd passed on it. "But I took the higher road and didn't mention that." "I'm not sure I would have had such self-control," said Paula Guran.After that it was near 1:30 and my bowl of cereal from 8 o'clock had worn off, so I went to have lunch. Then I walked around the dealer room for awhile. Near the back wall, I ran across James Patrick Kelly and Peter S. Beagle doing signings. I really wanted to go up to Beagle, but it took me another circuit of that section of the dealer room to work up the courage to go up, buy a book (The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche, one of the few I didn't already have), and get in line. (I know, I'm a dork.) But I finally did. Last in line, and he was willing to chat, so we did. A very nice man, with a mellifluous voice and very philosophical, but I was so star-struck (he's been an all-time favorite of mine since I was very young) that all I could do, pretty much, was offer prompts to keep him talking. And finally I even ran out of those, so I thanked him and left. And wanted to spork my eyes out because I immediately thought of a hundred things to say. Ah well.
As it was getting close to four I had a decision to make: leave then to get slightly ahead of traffic (in my experience, Thursday is the worst night for traffic of the whole week); go to some more panels, then kill time at the bar until 7 or so (to give the traffic time to die down); or leave somewhere between those two times and have a 45-minute drive turn into an hour and a half of parking lot driving. I really wanted to see if I could meet up with some OWWers in the bar later, but my bad ankle was aching and mixing pain killers with alcohol with a long drive didn't seem like such a good idea. So I said goodbye to Deb, felt only a little guilty about being such a nerd, and left.
I need to get out more, clearly. But I wound up feeling really good about my day because I had some great discussions and because I was able to get over myself enough to actually accomplish something. (Teeny though it was compared with most folks, it was big for me.) Maybe next time I go to a major con I can actually stay more than five hours. Maybe I can (on my!!) even go for more than one day.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 03:59 pm (UTC)Wouldn't want to get too wild and crazy. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-27 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 02:18 pm (UTC)Peter Beagle said when he was young he used to write every first draft like it was the third draft and as a consequence of constant polishing, was not very prolific. He tries now just to get a draft down first, then polish it--but he still can't help fiddling along the way
So totally what I need to learn to do...
no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 04:05 pm (UTC)I left feeling good about the day, so that's the most important thing.
So totally what I need to learn to do...
Well, you're in revision on Once Knight, so that could take awhile. As to getting through the first draft faster, and revisions faster, he said that he got to a point where he told himself, "It's the first draft. It doesn't have to be perfect. I can fix it later." And on the revisions, he told himself, "It doesn't have to be perfect. Just concentrate on the characters and the story, worry about the small stuff later." And he kept repeating it until he started to listen to himself. :-) I know for myself that when I was able to let go of my own "perfection syndrome," I was able to write faster.